Formula 1 Formula 1 Gran Premio de México 2019

One of the best attended races of the year is next, as we head back to North America for the reborn Mexican Grand Prix. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is situated over 2000m above sea level, making it a unique race with low air density affecting downforce levels massively. Think Monza levels of downforce from Monaco wings. Lewis Hamilton can claim his 6th Drivers World Championship this race if he can beat Valtteri Bottas by a few places, so can he score his 3rd championship in a row at this track? The Stadium section makes this one of the best podiums of the year, so can Hamilton celebrate the championship on the podium for only the third time in his career? Ferrari have been blindingly fast since the summer break, and this has been a Red Bull track for the last two years, so Mercedes aren't coming in as favourites. Rain is a threat for the weekend, so anything could happen. Roll on the Mexican Grand Prix.
First Grand Prix
1963

Hopefully Lewis wins and the Hulk somehow gets a miracle podium. Maybe midfield can be more of nuisance to the fastest teams here, will be good if McLaren can fight cars at the front again. Power unit performance will be interesting to follow here.

Rain for the race and/or quali would be pretty interesting I think. With the limited grip due to lack of downforce, a wet race could be really chaotic.

If Lewis wins the title here again, I hope he gives us another classic moment like when he ran out of the stadium to escape the mob, ran along the top of a barrier, and then bowled over a fan who got in his way Anyone able to find a clip of that? I think I was from 2017.

Edit: Renault to review all aspect of the company. Not specifically targeting terminating the F1 program, but it’s definitely on the table and up for discussion.

Edit: Verstappen set the fastest final sector under yellows. Could be in bother with the stewards.

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His lap time stands as there was no yellow flag, same for Hamilton. Even if Verstappen lost that lap he'd still be on pole (unless an additional penalty was given) . Ferrari are making a lot of noise as both their drivers backed off believing there was a yellow flag.

EDIT: To be clear: my own belief is that there should have been a yellow flag and it was right for any driver that backed off to have done so.

The wider question is the general flag situation in F1 right now. Chequered flags instead of reds, chequered flags ending races at the wrong time... if this malaise spreads through the caution flag system then we could see a serious mishap through it. Was today's lack of a yellow flag for a potentially very serious incident a system failure?

EDIT 2: One of the Ferrari onboards shows it passing waved yellow. Was there a lack of System Yellow on the electric boards and timing computer? Something's definitely amiss.

The shockwave through the barrier really showed how heavy Bottas' hit was. You could see it travel all the way out of the image.

Verstappens onboard clearly shows no yellows on the signs, but there was a waved yellow flag. He clearly didn't lift at all.
I expect the lap to be taken away, but no further penalty due to the sign not flashing.

https://www.racefans.net/2019/10/26...r-investigation-for-yellow-flag-infringement/
Verstappen under investigation. The current precedent for this is a 3 place grid drop and 2 penalty points. This was brought in after the Rosberg at Hungary 2016 farce. He should get a grid drop (not lap deleted, it's a safety breach, not track limits) for driving in an unsafe manner. Forget yellow flags, when he went around the corner and saw a Mercedes in the wall he should have lifted off, the crash was clearly in his eye line.

But it's Verstappen so he'll get away with it, like he did in Austria...

https://www.racefans.net/2019/10/26...r-investigation-for-yellow-flag-infringement/
Verstappen under investigation. The current precedent for this is a 3 place grid drop and 2 penalty points. This was brought in after the Rosberg at Hungary 2016 farce. He should get a grid drop (not lap deleted, it's a safety breach, not track limits) for driving in an unsafe manner. Forget yellow flags, when he went around the corner and saw a Mercedes in the wall he should have lifted off, the crash was clearly in his eye line.

But it's Verstappen so he'll get away with it, like he did in Austria...

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If he does and Lewis can capitalise in the race and assuming Bottas has a pit lane start, the stars could have aligned for Lewis...

Forget yellow flags, when he went around the corner and saw a Mercedes in the wall he should have lifted off, the crash was clearly in his eye line.

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I have to say I agree with this. However, the rules don't compel him to act that way. I feel like the grey areas that have developed between the letter of the rules and the interpretation of them are slowly spreading over flag codes, something that should never happen. This disconnect between physical and "system" flags that we've seen in five or six races this year and which have affected reds, yellows and chequers needs addressing imo.

EDIT: Clearly a waved yellow for Verstappen. I accept he may not have been able to see it but as @Jimlaad43 says the accident was clearly in his eyeline.

EDIT 2: Oh dear.

EDIT 3: From SkyF1

SkyF1:

Max Verstappen has been summoned to F1 stewards in the wake of claiming pole position at the Mexican GP. The Red Bull driver has been charged with an offence of allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags when Valtteri Bottas crashed in the closing seconds of Q3.

While the incident is under investigation, it is believed the stewards also want Verstappen to explain his comments in the subsequent post-qualifying press conference.

Also... I felt it took a long time for marshals to reach Bottas, or maybe it's just me?

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Two things for that:
1: The wall there didn't seem to have an easy gap for them to go through, so it takes time to get there and find a way through. Plus at the end of Q3 you know there are going to be only like 4 more cars, so wait until they go past before going out.
2: Since the near miss in Monaco and another dodgy incident in Canada in a support race, the FIA have been not allowing marshals onto the track until they "give permission" to them, so they were most likely just waiting. You can see this clearly when Vettel stopped in Russia, the three marshals were ready to go, but the guy with the radio is stood there listening and waiting for Race Control to tell him to go. (Incidentally this whole fiasco has had a lot of complaints and is not likely to continue for much longer).

Why didn't the team jump on the radio and tell him to back off since he already had the fastest time anyway? It seems they had time since he was last on track. But yeah his comments in the post qualifying press conference didn't really help him much.

I don't get why people are so upset with what Max said in the post qualifying press conference. Everyone could clearly see from his onboard already that he didn't lift while Bottas was clearly visible in the wall and yellow flag out. He's just being honest about it, what's wrong with that? Is he supposed to lie about it and say he didn't see Bottas or the yellow flag? Now that's just stupid in my opinion. He probably already expected he'd get a penalty anyway.

I also think this is actually an advantage for him. Starting from pole at Mexico is quite bad anyway, especially with 2 Ferrari's right behind. He would probably be third going through the first corner. Now he's starting from fourth with a slipstream and can actually gain some places going into the first corner. Should be an exciting start.

I don't get why people are so upset with what Max said in the post qualifying press conference. Everyone could clearly see from his onboard already that he didn't lift while Bottas was clearly visible in the wall and yellow flag out. He's just being honest about it, what's wrong with that? Is he supposed to lie about it and say he didn't see Bottas or the yellow flag? Now that's just stupid in my opinion. He probably already expected he'd get a penalty anyway.

I also think this is actually an advantage for him. Starting from pole at Mexico is quite bad anyway, especially with 2 Ferrari's right behind. He would probably be third going through the first corner. Now he's starting from fourth with a slipstream and can actually gain some places going into the first corner. Should be an exciting start.

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Was thinking about the same. Agree with the penalty.
You can also see Max as an example for being open and honest (and yes the consequence is a penalty).
It's my personal opinion but I think that's better then being silent or even lie and join the 'political' arena.

I’m really not at all happy with the stewarding, japan was a farce and Max, clearly going flat out through a yellow flag zone wasn’t even picked up until the press conference when he admitted to doing it.... what the ****, why wasn’t he investigated as soon as his s3 time was purple as a matter of due diligence?!

Why the **** was Ferrari and Leclerc let off so lightly when his car was dangerous? Why did it take Max complaining for them to investigate the t1/2 incident?!

Imo for next season the Stewards need a proper leader/chairman because Massi(?) isn’t good enough given the last few races

I don't get why people are so upset with what Max said in the post qualifying press conference. Everyone could clearly see from his onboard already that he didn't lift while Bottas was clearly visible in the wall and yellow flag out. He's just being honest about it, what's wrong with that? Is he supposed to lie about it and say he didn't see Bottas or the yellow flag? Now that's just stupid in my opinion. He probably already expected he'd get a penalty anyway.

I also think this is actually an advantage for him. Starting from pole at Mexico is quite bad anyway, especially with 2 Ferrari's right behind. He would probably be third going through the first corner. Now he's starting from fourth with a slipstream and can actually gain some places going into the first corner. Should be an exciting start.

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I don't see anyone in here being upset with Max. They were just pointing out how he had incriminated himself.

I don't see anyone in here being upset with Max. They were just pointing out how he had incriminated himself.

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I just mean in general, not just on this forum. Should have mentioned that probably. People calling him all sorts of things for saying that which is stupid. I like his honesty even though that did indeed contribute to the penalty.

I just found out that he actually got stripped of his pole position though, that's something I don't agree with at all since his first run in Q3 was already fast enough for pole. There was no reason to take that lap away from him. They should've just given him the 3 place grid drop in the race and leave the qualifying result as is. Isn't that what they always do with penalties after qualifying? Now Max still only has 1 career pole position, quite silly. FIA just being inconsistent once again.

Why are people even making a fuss out of Max being honest? If anything, I agree with @baldgye in saying that it's pretty obvious the stewards are sipping coffee instead of actually looking what is happening on the track.